Thursday, June 25, 2015

I still have plenty to get done to hit my deadline of having a completely organized master bathroom by the end of the day. But I thought I would stop in quick and share a quick review and tutorial of how I handled our gross grout situation.

The bathroom grout is about 8-9 years old and was originally done in a white color. And it was never sealed. Seal your grout right away people, this was a huge mistake we made. Over the years, it has become dirty, dingy and impossible to keep clean as grime absorbed deep into the unsealed grout. Because I was emptying the bathroom to sort, purge and organize, I knew it was now or never to check this project off of the list. After some quick Googling, I discovered a product called Grout Renew. We were the perfect candidates for this product as it is intended to easily restore and seal old, dirty grout. Count me in!

This is NOT sponsored, I completely opted to research and do this myself after becoming sick of scrubbing clean our bathroom floors. Off to Home Depot I went and picked up a bottle of Grout Renew in Delorean Gray. They have limited colors at our store, but as I was just looking online, it appears they have an endless variety of shades. Learn from me, they have just about any color you would want online! Doh! Now you know.

I stood at the store and read the directions on the back of the bottle, and it recommended using one of their products to get the floors super clean prior to application. Even though I have done my share of tile and grout scrubbing, I decided to use the recommended cleaner just to be sure I was happy with the end result.

This stuff is on the strong side, so it is recommended that you use gloves while scrubbing. But first, a before close-up of the grout.

I started by filling two mop buckets; one with a mild dishsoap water and the other with the Sulfamic Acid cleaner. I also grabbed my gloves and a bristle scrub brush.

Prior to scrubbing with the grout cleaner, I mopped the floor with the mild dishsoap to prep the surface.

Because I was wearing gloves and just trying to get things done, I didn't take any pictures of the scrubbing process, but I essentially just scrubbed the entire floor with the cleaner and bristle brush. I followed up with a damp mop one more time and here was the end result.

The tiles and grout looked great, the cleaner really got things back to a nice start. I let everything dry for a few hours while I played with the kids.

The directions for the Grout Renew stated to place a small blob at the cross section of the tiles and work your way out. With an opening like that, no small blob would be coming out of that bottle. I decided to head to the kitchen and transfer the Grout Renew into a fine tip plastic squeeze bottle instead.

I also quickly learned that a little bit goes a long way!

The directions also state to use a toothbrush to spread the Grout Renew into your grout lines. Um, no. It makes such a big mess and spreads it everywhere. There is zero precision with a toothbrush. Thank goodness I had a slew of craft brushes on hand (a reader also mentioned Young House Love did something similar and a craft brush worked great for them as well).

I still made sure to sort-of scrub it in so the grout could really absorb the new color.

Again, nearly impossible to do without getting the product on your tiles, so be ready to follow behind each line with a damp rag.

Speaking of the damp rag, the wetter the rag, the more the product will smear while touching up. It seemed to work better to let the Grout Renew set for a minute or two (but not too long or it will cure), and then go back over the grooved edge of our tile with my fingertip and the barely damp rag.

It is a time consuming and slow process, you definitely have to practice a bit of patience while you work.

And for the end result?

After getting up close and personal with the project, I think the product worked quite well. As it dried, it seemed quite durable and really did clean up the previous grout to a brand-spanking new finish! Everything is sparkly clean which makes me happy.

On a side note, I think the darker color dated the look of our tiles. Although they will now hide dirt and grime and clean really nicely, I probably should have gone with a slightly lighter shade of gray. I realized it quite early on, but decided it was one of those projects that I had to wait until we were completely finished to make any final judgements. I may do one more coat in the lighter gray if I can muster up the time and motivation.

Now, I must get back to work. I finally get to tackle my favorite part which is the small organizational projects and details. See you back here tomorrow!

22 comments:

I really like how it turned out. On your side note, I always thought white grout dated the look of tiles as opposed to picking a color out of the tile coloring. I'd love to hear what others have to say...

This is such perfect timing! I actually have a bottle of this stuff at home right now for my Master Bath too. I bought it weeks ago and now it just sits on the counter, mocking me. None of my craft brushes were the right size so last night I finally bought a few more smaller ones so I can FINALLY cross this off my to-do list. It's amazing how much clean grout can impact a room!

So glad to see this post as I have been really wanting to try this out! We bought our house a couple years ago and have tile in our entryway, which is original to the house being built 20 years ago. Early 90s tile and dirty old grout that was once white, as evidenced where the previous owners must have had their doormat rug sitting...for 20 years Lol! Well, not ready for a major renovation of this flooring area, as well as not having the $ the tile itself doesn't really bother me, except for that grout! You have definitely motivated me to give this a try - Thank You! By the way, love that shower curtain! Esp. with the new paint color :)

Maybe it's cause I'm not seeing it in person, but I don't think it dates the tile. I think it looks great. I'm definitely going to have to remember this post for the future. Our tile and grout are fine right now (brand new and sealed) but if I ever want to change things up this sounds like a great product!

I moved into a 100 year+ rental home a few years ago, with a tiled kitchen floor. The grout was a dark, dark grey - but it wasn't supposed to be! After several hours of scrubbing it with bleach pens and toothbrushes, it was white! Even my landlord was surprised. She hadn't realized it wasn't meant to be nearly black. I sealed with the clear sealant and it was easy to keep clean after that.

I did this exact process a year ago to the tile in our kitchen, dinning room, back entry and I still love how much easier it is to care for...now if only I would finish the small section in the pantry!!

Hi Julie! The product has a built-in sealant so there are no extra steps. I can tell that the finish is a bit more smooth than our unsealed grout was, so my fingers are crossed that this quick update will get us through a few more years. :)

Looks great - I'll have to consider it for a few places in my home since I am not ready for the re-tiling project. Great idea in using the small tip bottle and craft brushes to do this project. I'm always up for less clean-up on projects.

However, I hope you were wearing eye protection and had the fan going for fumes. Anything labeled as "acid" scares the heck out of me.

I think that since your tile is kind of a marble look, it doesnt look dated as (at least I think) thats one of those finishes that is classic and doesnt go out of style. That being said, I find myself struggling all the time when it comes down to form vs function for decorating. For example, I love the bamboo blinds everyone is using today but I need privacy as well as an option for just a little light, versus all or nothing. So, when it comes to your grout color, Im totally with you that its better to have a dark color that you dont need to worry about it looking yucky all the time or having to put a lot of elbow grease into maintaining its color.

We have a similar tile in our bathroom with white grout and after cleaning today, I noticed it's hard to keep clean. And I don't think the dark color makes it look dated at all! On a side note: Are you going to do a full blog post on the details of your kitchen/living room reno? I'm dying to know details. As far as measurements and stuff goes.

Thanks Stefanie! And yep, as soon as we are done, I will be sure to share every last detail. We had another little island snafu, still have a bit of trim work to finish up and I have to decide on a backplash, so we still have some work to do before a final reveal post. I am dying to be done! :) It has definitely been a labor of love and is taking much longer than either of us anticipated. Hopefully worth the wait!

I had this done to my tile 2 years ago because I have over 1000 square feet of it. There are some places that may need some touch up but definitely holding up... well worth it! As for color, I would recommend any color that disappears into the tile when you stand back, especially for larger spaces.

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